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carriereedwrites · 2 years ago

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WTF is The Promise of The Premise?

The other day I wrote about Premise - that deceptively simple but complex singular sentence that, if crafted well, can hook a reader and tell them what the story will be about without giving the story away.

Today, I want to talk about The Promise of The Premise and why it’s so stinking important to deliver on your promises.

First, let’s review. WTF is a Premise?

A premise is a single sentence that describes four things:

1. The protagonist

2. The protagonist’s goal

3. The crisis

4. Something unique or interesting that sets the story apart from others like it

Got it? Good. Now...

WTF is The Promise of The Premise?

I touched a bit on this explanation in my previous post about Premise here, but it bears repeating.

A well-crafted Premise will do two things:

1. Present questions to the reader without having to ask a single one

2. Pique their curiosity to the point where they need the answers to those questions

The Promise of The Premise will be how you, the writer, fulfill these two things. And yes, there is a wrong way to do this. First, I want to clarify how we identify the Promises in The Premise.

Here's an example Premise:

A witch whose magic constantly misfires accidentally summons the most terrifyingly tempting Alpha werewolf to rule the US in order to save magical families being hunted by a demon.

We've fulfilled the four requirements here. We have a witch (The Protagonist) whose magic constantly misfires (something unique) accidentally summons the most terrifyingly tempting Alpha werewolf to rule the US (the crisis) in order to save magical families being hunted by a demon (the goal).

Just by a few key words, you can tell what kind of book this might be, or the genre/sub-genre this story is in.

Take a guess. Read the premise over again and write it down or remember it.

Do you know?

It's a fantasy romance. (Duh, I write romances.)

Fantasy for the witches, werewolves and magic. Romance for the "terrifyingly tempting" description of the Alpha werewolf. We have two promises we already need to fulfill here. Subconsciously, the reader will expect some kind of magical adventure and our witch is going to be tempted by this werewolf's hotness.

Now, keep in mind, you're not just trying to hook every single reader out there. And this Premise isn't meant to hook someone who's looking to read a mystery or sci-fi. This Premise is built to hook romance readers. And trust me, readers know what to look for.

If you've ever been fishing, you don't just go to any ol' body of water, throw your bait in with whatever fishing rod you got and hope to catch something good. There's some planning involved. There's a particular fish you're after and it's your job to know what kind of bait, hook and rod to use. If you don't, you may be catching fish you don't want or worse - no fish at all.

This is why crafting your Premise a certain way is important to the genre of the story you're writing in.

Most genres have built-in Promises you need to fulfill in order to hook readers in and leave them satisfied. And yes, that's another post for another time.

Right now, what we're going to be focusing on is the concept of The Promise, by using the romance genre as an example.

For a story to be considered a romance, two things are required to happen: Love Conquers All and the book must end with an HEA (Happily Ever After) or an HFN (Happy For Now).

For a story to be considered fantasy, we need to have some sort of, well, fantasy element - we have witches, magic, werewolves and demons. Consistent with this genre, it's also expected that the heroes will save the day from the forces of evil.

Based on these Promises, the reader will automatically expect the following to be fulfilled:

Our witch and werewolf will save these families from the clutches of a demon

The witch and werewolf fall unexpectedly in love

Their love will help them conquer over the forces of evil

And just because the werewolf is "terrifyingly tempting," there may be some naughty scenes between him and our witchy heroine

Through fire and flame, our two heroes will be committed to each other and live in blissful domestication (or if this is Book One, maybe not just yet)

Seems like a lot, yes. But, if you do it right, a lot of these Promises and elements will pull double-triple duty and provide character development, world building, and drive plot. One scene can and should do a multitude of things like foreshadowing, moving plot, upping the stakes, insight to a character’s backstory, etc.

In the words of Alton Brown, “NO SINGLE USE GADGETS ALLOWED.”

Now, let's address the other Promises you must fulfill. Yes, there's more!

Remember how I said a good Premise will present questions without having to ask a single one? Take a look at this:

A witch whose magic constantly misfires (How did she get like this? Why does it misfire?) accidentally summons (How did she accidentally summon someone?) the most terrifyingly tempting Alpha werewolf to rule the US (Why is he tempting? Is the witch attracted to him? And is he terrifying because he's mean, ruthless, a killer? Why?) in order to save magical families being hunted by a demon (Why is this demon hunting these families? Did these families do something to the demon? What's the reason behind the attack?).

All of these questions aren't just questions to leave the reader in a state of suspense. Yes, you want to hook readers in but you don't want to deceive them, either.

Honestly, you'll have a mob of upset readers for not answering any of these questions. Even more, if you don't answer these questions with a satisfying answer.

If you promise your readers a terrifyingly tempting Alpha werewolf, he better come through with some hot looks, bedroom talk, and a dominant personality.

If you have a witch whose magic misfires and accidentally summons people she doesn't mean to, then she can't be proficient in magic. But, because she's the heroine, she needs to be capable in a different way that causes the reader cheer her on.

If you have a demon hunting magical families, the demon needs to be big, bad and powerful to murder witches, right? Don't magically make him incapable at the climax because your heroes need the good ending. Your heroes need to find a way to defeat this foe through trial and tribulation because your reader is expecting them to meet the challenge.

Fulfilling The Promise of The Premise will leave your readers both satisfied and wanting more. So, why not give them what they want?

As you're plotting and drafting, keep your Premise in mind. Understand and remember the Promises you need to keep. If you can do that, you're well on your way of being an accomplished writer.

If you have any questions, or comments please feel free to drop them here! My DMs are also open! And as always...

~ Happy Writing, Ya'll ~

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carriereedwrites · 2 years ago

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WTF is a Premise?

Ahhh, I love the feeling of a brand new post, don’t you? Especially after such a long hiatus. My brain feels fresh, my spirit motivated, and I want to start cranking out shit posts to entertain the masses. Or at least one or two of you.

I see ya, fam.

(Yes, this post will have Doctor Who GIFs because it makes me happy. Get used to it now, it’s only going to get worse)

Not only is this a new series I’m working on for writing advice, but the Premise is also where most writers begin without even knowing it. That brain spark of an idea that sets you on a course of events that leads you to write that story?

Yeah, that was a Premise, my friend.

I posted about this in one of the writing groups I’m in and it got a lot of love, so I’m going to post it here for the Void Gods of the Internet to eat. But, hey. If this finds at least one person who needs this information, then I’ve done my job.

Let’s start at the beginning. Well, the more beginning, beginning. The absolute beginning.

WTF is a Premise?

A premise is one sentence that describes four things:

1. The protagonist

2. The protagonist’s goal

3. The crisis

4. Something unique or interesting that sets the story apart from others like it

Now, do you need this to be perfectly spot on the first time? No. Does it have to be extremely well-crafted off the cuff? No.

Premises don’t start off fully formed and amazing. At least, not in your head. They are simple, vague descriptions that barely have substance, at first. In fact the most well known premise that everyone may be familiar with is:

“Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl.”

It wasn’t just a TV show in the 90′s, people. This is the most well known premise, as gender biased as it is by today’s standards. But, the concept is simple to understand.

In one sentence it tells us who the protagonist is, what the crisis is, and what the goal is, in that order.

Mind you, there’s nothing unique about this premise because this was back in the 1930′s and this kind of romantic conflict-resolution style of storytelling was considered hackneyed, at best. The kind of storytelling that was happening in Hollywood and on stage were masculine, thought-provoking pieces that were only successful if it made the audience cry from anxiety or three idiots slapping each other with fish. There was no in between.

Listen, I could go on and on and on... but ya’ll came for pertinent information.

(I told you more was coming...)

Now, I could go more into how your Premise can double as a pitch to an editor or publisher, if that’s the road you’re taking. But, I want to save that for another post.

For now, we’re going to focus more on how to craft the Premise.

Take my current WIP premise, for example:

A culinary school drop out from Hawai’i must fake an engagement with her next door neighbor from hell in order to grab the opportunity of a life time: working for the most popular foodie magazine in the US.

Let’s break this down into our four parts of Premise:

A culinary school drop out from Hawai’i... This not only describes our protagonist, but it also mentions something unique - she’s from Hawai’i

...must fake an engagement with her next door neighbor from hell... The crisis!

...in order to grab the opportunity of a life time: working for the most popular foodie magazine in the US... The goal, baby!

The goal with crafting a Premise is to keep it concise and use words as efficiently as possible. A really good Premise will also present questions to the reader without having asked a single one.

(Sigh, I miss you the most, David)

This is called the Promise of the Premise, and yup, you guessed it! I want to save that for another post.

In general, a well-crafted Premise will pique the reader’s curiosity and make them want to read your story in order to answer those questions.

Again, taking my Premise as an example:

A culinary school drop out from Hawai’i (How did she drop out? Why did she drop out?) must fake an engagement with her next door neighbor from hell (Why do they need to fake an engagement? Why does she think he’s an asshole?) in order to grab the opportunity of a life time: working for the most popular foodie magazine in the US (”opportunity of a life time” is self-explanatory, but why does THIS protagonist need this job?!)

This is pretty advanced stuff we’re getting into now. At this point, in order to craft a good Premise, you’ll need to know what your plot will be and who your characters are. And yes, that will be another post.

When I came up with this premise, all I had was that the protagonist was going to be Native Hawaiian (like me) and she wants something so badly that she does the unthinkable.

That alone is a Premise, albeit, not a very good one. But, all four elements are there. My protagonist is Native Hawaiian (which describes her AND is the special thing about her), her goal is to get this thing (whatever it is), and her crisis is that she wants it so badly that she’ll do whatever it takes to get it (ANYTHING).

As you can tell, it isn’t amazing. Kind of bland, really.

Your goal at this point is to figure all that story and character development out and then tweak your Premise until it makes sense.

(Or until you can elevator pitch it in your sleep... but again, another post.)

Whew! This post turned out longer than I expected. Looks like I had a lot to say on the subject.

Let me know what your thoughts were about Premise, and if I left anything out or got anything wrong. And as always...

~ Happy Writing, Ya’ll ~

#novel writing #Writing tips #writing #creative writing #fiction writing #tumblr writers #writer tips #writer problems #am writing #writing advice #carriereedwrites #writing problems #premise #story beats #beginning

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